Sands Through an Hourglass
by DarkTaoAngel
Summary: After waking from a coma, Sasuke loses all memories of only one person: his boyfriend, Naruto. Can Naruto get him to remember, or will things be over between them? SasuNaru


**DarkTaoAngel: I wanted this to be longer than it is, but my time to write it was limited. I'm really into SasuNaru now, so expect more of that from me. This idea is kind of common, but later I have another plot-twist to add in that will really make it exciting. Enjoy, review, and continue reading until the story's finished!**

_How could this have happened? _Naruto thought to himself as he brushed back the strands of lose hair from the face of the pale boy sleeping on the bed before him, _How could I have let this happen?_

It wasn't really his fault; after all, he couldn't have prevented it, even if he'd have wanted to. Of course, he still felt enormous guilt, but that was only natural. Besides, the doctors said he might live. _Might_. Naruto knew he probably wouldn't.

Naruto didn't know what had happened to him, the doctors absolutely refused to tell him anything. They had said it was for the best, but Naruto knew better. They just didn't want to have to deal with his reaction. It had been hard enough to handle his reaction to finding out that his boyfriend had slipped into a coma, let alone how.

_A coma. _Naruto still had trouble realizing that truth. The evidence was right in front of him in the form of an apparently sleeping boy who hadn't woken up in at least a week, but he still didn't believe it. He wanted nothing more than to have him wake up, to have the fact that had been written on countless doctors' notes be discovered as a lie.

'_He'll probably not live for much longer.' _Many of them had told him that, prepared him for what could and probably would happen. But Naruto had lived each day since he had arrived at the hospital believing that any minute he would wake up. That was possibly the only thing that kept Naruto alive himself, just the simple belief that he _would_ get better soon. If he told himself that it wasn't true, that he could die at any time and never wake up, then he would have no reason to live.

Of course, part of the disbelief had come with the fact that he wasn't bleeding anymore, most of the more severe wounds had turned to scars already. At least he didn't look as bad as he did the night he'd arrived at the hospital. He'd managed to walk all the way to Konoha before collapsing. He was completely covered in blood and fresh cuts, with one particularly nasty one right beside his heart. Someone had really wanted him dead.

He'd never been able to tell anyone who had done it to him, though. After he had passed out and been taken to the hospital, he had never woke up since. The doctors had an idea as to who it might have been, but Naruto was filled in on nothing. Naruto really thought he had a right to know, after all, he didn't really keep it secret that Sasuke was his boyfriend. They had been dating for almost three months, and the doctors didn't even think that Naruto, the only person he had really been close to, should know!

Wind rushed into the room through an open window that peaked out onto the cool autumn night. It was getting steadily darker out, the moon hanging low in the velvety sky. A million or more small stars scattered in the rich atmosphere, each one glistening with the hope Naruto wished he still had. He believed that Sasuke would wake up at any time, and he waited for that moment continually. But that was all it would ever be. Waiting. And waiting would only get him so far.

The doctors weren't worrying about him dying from the coma, as that was nearly impossible, but the internal bleeding from the stab so close to his heart was the most cause for concern. Any wrong movement and his heart could cease to beat.

Twiddling his thumbs and swinging his legs back and forth in the chair beside Sasuke's bed, Naruto yawned and pried his eyes from outside and diverted his attention instead back on the boy in the bed. Kissing him lightly on the forehead before standing and leaving the hospital for the night, Naruto solidified his resolve to remain hopeful as long as he had someone to hope for.

(Page breaker)

Early the next morning Naruto returned to the hospital, immediately taking up the chair beside the bed in room 102 – Sasuke's room - as he did every day. He couldn't complain, he had nowhere else to go, and he enjoyed it there. Not because of the hospital itself, as he hated them for many reasons, but for Sasuke. After all, he had to be strong for both of them. If he wasn't strong for Sasuke, he might not make it. And Naruto had convinced himself far too many times that he_ was_ going to live for him to not.

Not that he had doubt or anything, but the chances were very slim for him to live. Naruto didn't want to admit it to himself, but the days were passing by rather rapidly, and there were still no signs of life from the still figure that was Sasuke. It almost felt as though it wasn't really Sasuke anymore. At least, it wasn't the Sasuke that Naruto had come to know and love. He was a different person, and to put it truthfully, it scared Naruto to see him like that. To know that his last moments of life could very well be spent in a hospital, in a coma, without Naruto ever getting to see him again.

Naruto looked again at the lifeless body that was his boyfriend, hooked up to so many machines that it was hard to tell he was even there anymore. He felt tears poke at his eyes and made no effort to repress them. They would come whether he wanted them to or not.

"Sasuke… please get better," Naruto whispered softly, feeling his throat seemingly constrict as he spoke his first words in days, "Please, I don't think I can live without you…"

It wasn't as though his hope was broken, though hope was a fragile thing, his was far from shattered. He still wanted to believe with all of his heart that he would get better, he _needed _him to get better, but a part of him still knew that he might not. It was that part of him, screaming constantly in his ear, telling him things that he never wanted to hear, that spoke more truth than his blindly ambitious hopes ever could.

And then he heard it, a light groan from his right. Had he not been right next to the sound, he might not have heard it, but lucky enough, he had. Lowering his eyes slowly, disbelievingly, he saw what only his greatest dreams wound permit him to see. Eyes half open, Sasuke was finally awake.

"Sasuke! Sasuke, you're alright!" Naruto exclaimed, pulling said boy into a back-breaking hug as his crying continued. "I can't believe it! Well, I mean, I can believe it, but everyone told me you might have… well…"

Naruto let his sentence drift after that, having no idea as to how he might finish what he wanted to say anyway. But the strangest thing, when Naruto looked Sasuke in the eye, was the look of pure confusion on his face, which left Naruto concerned that he might have done something wrong.

"A-are you okay Sasuke?" Naruto asked, noting the way the other boy looked at him. The look he gave him just didn't look like the Sasuke he knew.

"Who… are you?" Sasuke asked after a moment of silence, not scornfully, merely out of confusions and seriousness. He really had no idea who Naruto was.

"What? You're not serious, are you? I'm Naruto, you know me! You don't… do you?" Sasuke shook his head slowly, confusion vastly setting in on him. Who was this boy, and why was he here? There was something familiar about him, but he still couldn't place where he'd seen him before.

"What's going on here?" a nurse who had just arrived after hearing all the commotion questioned, "Oh my, you're alright!" she added, shocked to see that Sasuke was awake, let alone sitting up and in almost perfectly fine condition.

Naruto glared at the nurse, as though silently accusing her of doing something to Sasuke to make him forget everything about him. She was a short woman, with a great smile plastered on her face. It didn't even seem to faze her that Naruto was giving her a hateful look.

"Well, Mr. Uzumaki, you may leave now. We have some tests we need to do on your friend here before we can let him go." She said, waving Naruto off with her hand.

"But… but I can't leave! He needs me! And he's not my friend, he's my boyfriend!" Naruto said proudly, almost forgetting how strangely that must sound to Sasuke, given his current memory loss.

"Boyfriend? You? Don't be silly, I have no idea who you are! I've never even met you before. Besides, I'm straight, so I can't be your boyfriend." Sasuke said defiantly.

"Listen, I know you don't remember me, Sasuke, but you must remember something. Like the missions we went on when we were genin, like out team, you, me, and Sakura!"

"Yes, I remember the missions, and Sakura, why wouldn't I? But you weren't on my team." Sasuke said, annoyed. He didn't know who this kid was, but pretending to be on his team, his boyfriend, he had no idea what made him think he could invent things like this! There was nothing wrong with his mind, it was this boy, Naruto, who had something wrong with him.

"You've got to! Why would I make this up? I'm Naruto Uzumaki, from team 7, number one hyperactive knuckleheaded ninja! Doesn't any of that sound familiar to you?" Naruto pleaded for him to remember something, anything, but Sasuke merely shook his head.

"Mr. Uzumaki, you must leave!" the nurse said, pushing Naruto out of the room. He struggled, shouting things to Sasuke as he fought her.

"Don't you have even the slightest idea of who I am?" Naruto said desperately before being shoved out the door. He heard only one response, cold and cruel, before he was pushed fully out the door…

"No."


End file.
